"Drag Con Panel Extravaganza"

RuPaul's Drag Race S10E6

Didn't u just die at that "facts are facts" /  "all right, brown cow" / "your back is ashy" / "your talent is bottom two" banter with Monique-Asia-Monet early in the episode? The season 10 queens have such sharp friendly-but-competitive chemistry. And there's so much bonafide talent that there's already no filler remaining! We revert to the often anticlimactic "Snatch Game" next week but we've been pleased to see the show coming up with new angles and challenges lately. This episode began with the hilarious "sitting on a secret" game. Asia O'Hara proved the most sensitive bottom, accurately guessing the most things she was sitting on whilst blindfolded -- even a fax machine! It ended with a hat challenge where most of them had great looks though Asia's dandelion look was tops.

Inbetween those delights the maxi-challenge was even better as the nine queens had to hold three mock Drag Con panels to shill for RuPaul's latest entrepeneurial success...

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YNMS x 3: Crazy Rich Asians, Venom, and Woman Walks Ahead

So many trailers hitting recently. So little time to Yes No Maybe So them all. So let's catch up with three of the newer ones after the jump: Crazy Rich Asians, Venom, and Woman Walks Ahead...

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April Foolish Predictions: Best Supporting Actor

by Nathaniel R

One intriguing possibility is Oscar Isaac as the painter Paul Gauguin in "At Eternity's Gate" -- the film is about Vincent Van Gogh's time in Aries (in which their friendship went awry) -- but will it be ready in time and get strong distribution?

And now we come to the one acting category that arguably has no super devoted fan base: Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Why have we never met an obsessive fan of this category? It's easy to run into people who love leading ladies and/or leading men and, we should know more than anyone given the Supporting Actress Smackdowns that that particular contest tends to fascinate a wide swath of people. So why no love for Supporting Actor? Could it be because the Academy uses this category, we'd argue more than the others, as an afterthought, filling it with 'thanks for the career' citations and 'we like this movie, so, sure' troupers. Any other theories out there as to the lack of love? Please note: this is not to disparage supporting players as we love to sing their praises for jobs well done. Supporting actors (and actresses) are essential to the overall success of the stories they help shape and color.  

We've got at least five true stories this year with heavily male supporting ensembles that could affect this category though it's difficult to know in advance which actor (if any) might make enough of a mark to stand out beyond the leading men or leading ladies

• The undercover in the Klu Klux Klan drama BlacKkKlansman from Spike Lee (August)
• Astronauts to the moon drama First Man  from La La Land's Damien Chazelle (October)
• The Dick Cheney political (comic?) biopic Backseat from the director of The Big Short (December)
• Mary Queen of Scots history is full of men wrestling for power through her (December)
• Mary Poppins Ret --- WAIT, THAT'S NOT A TRUE STORY? GET OUTTA HERE! 

INVESTIGATE THE CHART. What do you think might happen in this category? 

Previous April Foolish Articles
Supporting Actress, Costume Design, Cinematography, Original Score, Screenplays, Animated Features, and the Prediction Charts

The Handmaid's Tale: Season 2 Begins

By Spencer Coile

What one word would you use to describe the first season of The Handmaid’s Tale? Bleak, visceral, angry… timely. Take your pick – they all apply. And returning for its second season, it becomes abundantly clear that the series is not shying away from its difficult subject matter.

Set in Gilead, a dystopian future where only a handful of women are capable of conceiving children, The Handmaid’s Tale (based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name) is a grisly yet empowering exploration of femininity and feminism in a time when women’s bodies are viewed as mere vessels. Season one was righteous, searing, and highly acclaimed earning eight total Emmy Awards and a place in the cultural zeitgeist. Can the second season keep the momentum going?

The Handmaid’s Tale’s first season loosely followed the plot of Atwood’s novel, but the second must conjure a life of its own...

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April Foolish: First Supporting Actress Predictions!

by Nathaniel R

Amy Adams as Second Lady Lynne CheneyPeople keep talking about whether or not Glenn Close can finally win an Oscar with The Wife... but while we're on the topic of perpetual bridesmaids, whither Amy Adams? She stars as Lynne Cheney in the biopic about Dick Cheney which reunites her with her American Hustle costar Christian Bale so perhaps we'll have to do "make up" Oscar wins this year for past slights? That's just one of the questions we have about this year's Best Supporting Actress competition which so far has zero competitors unless you count Rachel McAdams in Disobedience (but that just opened today so let's give everyone a week or to catch up with it - here's Jason's review) or unless you count fan favorites like Jennifer Garner in Love Simon and Lupita Nyong'o or Letitia Wright in Black Panther but all three of those scenarios are more fan-fiction than real possibilities given the type of roles and movies and performances they are. (They serve their movies well, especially Letitia Wright, don't misunderstand.)

The best supporting actress turn I've seen thus far for women in 2018 (and it's obviously super early in the film year) is from Virginia Madsen who does lovely work as a Christian mom realizing her eldest son is gay in the understated AIDS drama 1985. That's a micro-budget black & white indie, though, so we can't expect awards play unless the fates are miraculously kind to it. Still, there are plenty of exciting performances to come so on the new Supporting Actress Chart where we've selected 20 women who look like possible contenders. At least on paper but we have to start somewhere!

SEE THE CHART AND SOUND OFF RIGHT HERE IN THE COMMENTS. 

Previous April Foolish Articles
Costume Design, Cinematography, Original Score, Screenplays, Animated Features, Supporting Actor and the Prediction Charts